Is entitlement becoming an issue?

mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
Dwarful said:
Not sure how it will go when 'the average' guests starts to ask for those extra Magical Moments...like riding the tea cups with Alice & The Mad Hatter...etc.,
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I'm sure it wouldn't take long to find out that answer. I'm sure there's someone reading this thread that will be there soon that would be willing to give it a shot. It'd be interesting to try this on different levels too (ie Adults, uncostumed kids, costumed kids) and see what the results would be.
 
jlthomas81

jlthomas81

Well-Known Member
mousehockey37 said:
Yeah, the videos that are on that account are capturing the M&G's and it's not your typical M&G. Typical M&G's have a little bit of interaction, the characters will guide into a photo pose, snap the shots and move on. Sure, if you can catch a character at a slow time, you might be able to have a little bit longer chat, but not encounters like this. Example: DGF and I were in line to see Aladdin and Jasmine, when we got up to them, we started just chatting about things and it went from where's Abu to Aladdin's shoes. It was all fun and you could kinda see the CM's relaxing some and enjoying a little interaction with some early 30's adults.

The videos on that account show her wandering the park, riding rides and various other things with characters. The same characters that everyone else has to stand in line and wait for at a designated location/backdrop. These IG videos are just slightly shy of bordering as scenes from the actual Disney promo commercials where you see Goofy on the lawn in front of the castle hugging a kid... When in fact, he's the Great Goofini (most of the time) over in another part of the park. Heck, in a few of the videos you can see the characters coming out from backstage and they run right to each other as she was the first in line, oh and they know her name too... Always makes the other kids feel good when a character runs right by you shouting to another kid (who doesn't have a button on indicating their name, btw) and just totally blows you off.

I understand they live close, have AP's apparently and go a few times a week but it still doesn't make up for the fact that this kid due to the adults around her are giving her experiences that not only kids, but adults would love to have as well... I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to ride the teacups with Alice/White Rabbit/Mad Hatter or any other ride for that matter...
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In 2011, we experienced the most magical experience along with 500 other excited guests. We participated in the Star Tours after hours meet-up. It was the night before the ride officially opened. We rode Star Tours about 5 or 6 times that night, and each time with a different group of Star wars characters. The second to last ride, Princess Leia came over to us and walked the whole cue talking to my daughter, holding her hand and sat right next to her on the ride. After we disembarked, she walked with us out to Tatooine Traders, and stopped for some photo ops (see my avatar photo). We didn't ask for her to do it or anything. It did make us feel special. Not to mention we were featured in the Disney Parks Blog article about the meet-up (5th picture down). So things like that do happen to regular people too.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...ampaign=Feed:+DisneyParks+(Disney+Parks+Blog)

I had just assumed that people with AP's had experiences like this all the time. But I see now that this is not the norm.
 
mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
jlthomas81 said:
In 2011, we experienced the most magical experience along with 500 other excited guests. We participated in the Star Tours after hours meet-up. It was the night before the ride officially opened. We rode Star Tours about 5 or 6 times that night, and each time with a different group of Star wars characters. The second to last ride, Princess Leia came over to us and walked the whole cue talking to my daughter, holding her hand and sat right next to her on the ride. After we disembarked, she walked with us out to Tatooine Traders, and stopped for some photo ops (see my avatar photo). We didn't ask for her to do it or anything. It did make us feel special. Not to mention we were featured in the Disney Parks Blog article about the meet-up (5th picture down). So things like that do happen to regular people too.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/05/star-tours-meet-up-recap-of-our-first-meet-up-at-walt-disney-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+DisneyParks+(Disney+Parks+Blog)

I had just assumed that people with AP's had experiences like this all the time. But I see now that this is not the norm.
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This is a special situation. It was for the opening (pre-opening) of the ride. This sounds like one of those magical moments that just happened and that's awesome. You're also probably not at the parks multiple times a week all year round as well.

The bigger deal with this is that these things from the IG account are happening during normal hours with nothing special going on and others waiting to meet the characters she's with.

For the Star Tours event, were the characters roaming or did they have set M&G locations or was it a combination of both? I could see interacting with roaming characters having a different etiquette than a standard M&G and the IG account is crossing lines and breaking that etiquette.

All of this could spin off into another thread where "what is the proper etiquette of different types of Meet and Greets (characters that don't have set locations, ie character-palooza and IG, set locations PFH and most M&G's and Character Meals).
 
jlthomas81

jlthomas81

Well-Known Member
mousehockey37 said:
You're also probably not at the parks multiple times a week all year round as well.
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You are right. 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 in recent years.

mousehockey37 said:
For the Star Tours event, were the characters roaming or did they have set M&G locations or was it a combination of both?
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From what I remember they were just freely roaming and stopping for autographs and photo ops.

I am definitely seeing now how this is more of a "celebrity entourage" trying to take advantage than it is a typical guest looking for meet and greets. Such a shame because I was really behind the whole fun mom who makes cute costumes bit.
 
mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
jlthomas81 said:
I am definitely seeing now how this is more of a "celebrity entourage" trying to take advantage than it is a typical guest looking for meet and greets. Such a shame because I was really behind the whole fun mom who makes cute costumes bit.
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It is a shame. When you think about all the people that these characters/CMs interact with on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, they are seeing this one particular individual so frequently that they know her on a first name basis. Are there others? Probably, but this one is a very well documented case.
 
Eckert

Eckert

Well-Known Member
For what it's worth...

I spoke freely with a Wandkeeper from the Ollivander's show backstage at Universal one day. We talked about his job, and how he liked it. One thing that I ended up asking him what was how he chose young (and sometimes not so young) witches and wizards for their wands: a very special experience one could easily agree on, and something that would definitely stand out as a vacation memory. Something that stood out from the conversation was his selection process for Make-A-Wish families. When families with a MAW child would come in to the show, he would never pick the make-a-wish child unless it was specified/requested beforehand. Who would he pick? The child's sibling. The other kid. Why? His answer was: "Because everywhere they go, the kid with the pin has been getting all the attention, and their brothers/sisters have probably just been tagging along with no experiences of their own all day."

Now, I know Make-A-Wish is a completely different story and their should be a level of entitlement should be met concerning them, but the really good CM's/TM's will make everyone feel special. And they do exist. I've seen them! We've all seen them, we just don't have Instagram accounts with 10 thousand followers to announce when we have these special moments ourselves.
 
mouse_luv

mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
akayw0718 said:
Just to clarify on the rides with characters, the following happens every morning:
1) Tremaines ride the carousel
2) White Rabbit and Alice ride the teacups
3) Aladdin and Jasmine ride the carpets

All ride with guests. The difference is that they usually split up to be with more guests.
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I know I'm aware that these characters ride with guests usually at opening of the MK daily, (FWIW sometimes the Mad Hatter rides the Teacups as well). I'm pretty sure the point being made though, is that this particular little girl/family gets multiple rides multiple days a week with the characters and multiple characters at a time.

I'm sorry but they should not be riding with her and mostly her on the numerous days in a week that she is there (and yes this is documented on her insta), even though her mother will post things at a later date so they don't look as suspect. Everytime this kid goes to MK for opening she gets to ride with characters. IMHO they should be riding with other kids. Sorry kid in question. Life is tough. :rolleyes:
 
mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
Eckert said:
For what it's worth...

I spoke freely with a Wandkeeper from the Ollivander's show backstage at Universal one day. We talked about his job, and how he liked it. One thing that I ended up asking him what was how he chose young (and sometimes not so young) witches and wizards for their wands: a very special experience one could easily agree on, and something that would definitely stand out as a vacation memory. Something that stood out from the conversation was his selection process for Make-A-Wish families. When families with a MAW child would come in to the show, he would never pick the make-a-wish child unless it was specified/requested beforehand. Who would he pick? The child's sibling. The other kid. Why? His answer was: "Because everywhere they go, the kid with the pin has been getting all the attention, and their brothers/sisters have probably just been tagging along with no experiences of their own all day."

Now, I know Make-A-Wish is a completely different story and their should be a level of entitlement should be met concerning them, but the really good CM's/TM's will make everyone feel special. And they do exist. I've seen them! We've all seen them, we just don't have Instagram accounts with 10 thousand followers to announce when we have these special moments ourselves.
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It was only a matter of time before someone brought up MAW. Make-A-Wish has everything mapped out and the trips are planned ahead of time. What's being talked about in this thread is a girl, mom and photo entourage that go to the parks a couple times a week and meet with characters and have interactions with them that even some to most MAW kids don't even get.
 
BrianV

BrianV

Well-Known Member
mouse_luv said:
I know I'm aware that these characters ride with guests usually at opening of the MK daily, (FWIW sometimes the Mad Hatter rides the Teacups as well). I'm pretty sure the point being made though, is that this particular little girl/family gets multiple rides multiple days a week with the characters and multiple characters at a time.

I'm sorry but they should not be riding with her and mostly her on the numerous days in a week that she is there (and yes this is documented on her insta), even though her mother will post things at a later date so they don't look as suspect. Everytime this kid goes to MK for opening she gets to ride with characters. IMHO they should be riding with other kids. Sorry kid in question. Life is tough. :rolleyes:
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That these people go into wdw multiple times a week is weird indeed, though a good per day expenditure of their annual pass.
 
mouse_luv

mouse_luv

Well-Known Member
BrianV said:
That these people go into wdw multiple times a week is weird indeed, though a good per day expenditure of their annual pass.
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Having an AP or not should have nothing to do with your experiences in the park. If you think that they or anyone else with an AP "deserve" this or any other kind of "perks" of this nature because of sole expenditure on an AP then you need to go back and re-evaluate a lot of things, because you don't understand the point of an AP. And if these kind of perks were included in the AP, then everyone would buy one. Also, this family does not stay in the park all day, they go for their "experiences/perks" and leave after so many hours. It's not like "normal" park goers
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
mouse_luv said:
Having an AP or not should have nothing to do with your experiences in the park. If you think that they or anyone else with an AP "deserve" this or any other kind of "perks" of this nature because of sole expenditure on an AP then you need to go back and re-evaluate a lot of things.
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I think all @BrianV was getting at is "they're getting their money's worth by going to WDW a ton on their AP."
 
mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
I think all @BrianV was getting at is "they're getting their money's worth by going to WDW a ton on their AP."
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They are but they aren't. They're not there to actually do Disney World things unless it involves characters. It seems their visits are based solely around certain characters on certain days with certain dresses that have been made in advance and CM's are informing them of who is going to be where.

You'd have to add up all of the small trips (an hour here, 2 hours there) over the course of the AP year and see if it really does add up.
 
ItlngrlBella

ItlngrlBella

Well-Known Member
What I worry about is if a CM wants to make extra magic for a MAW child or a random kid, that they won't because IG pseudo-celebs and their paparazzi-posses are ruining it for everyone else.

Then you end up with M&G's regulated to a 2 second hug or hi-five and 1 quick pic - a "get 'em in and out in 10 seconds" cookie cutter experience. No fun for the guests, nor the CM's.
 
CaptainAmerica

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
mousehockey37

mousehockey37

Well-Known Member
akayw0718 said:
And this is going to get someone in entertainment fired. It's a ticking time bomb.
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As @CaptainAmerica posted above, this girl is BEHIND the fence, with the CM's in the Confectionary since she's dressed like one of those CMs. I mean, something bigger is going on there, they just don't let anyone back there.

Also, people go on about guys with pro photography equipment (I'm talking the Big L series lenses and such for Canon cameras and the like for the other brands), this video has a freakin' boom mic in it. You mean to tell me that Disney was with that type of equipment in their park?
 
J_Carioca

J_Carioca

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
Those are several professional-quality videos taken on several different days. Disney didn't take those videos, they edited them together. I call "bull****" on this girl ever having a problem with shyness any more than any little girl ever.
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Yup, and any shyness she might have had is more than made up for by her parents' lack of shyness!
 

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